China issues new list of top 500 enterprises

The list, jointly published by the China Enterprise Confederation (CEC) and China Enterprise Directors Association, showed the largest 500 companies have generated combined revenues of 71.17 trillion yuan ($10.44 trillion) in 2017, up 11.2 percent from one year earlier.

The growth accelerated from a rise of 7.64 percent registered in 2016.

State Grid Corporation of China, China Petrochemical Corporation, and China National Petroleum Corporation topped the list, which is composed according to the companies’ operating revenues.

State Grid is the biggest Chinese company, with an operating revenue of 2.36 trillion yuan, or about 3,460 billion dollars.

The smallest of the top 500 had an operating revenue of 30.69 billion yuan, a rise of 7.7 percent from last year and exceeding the 30 billion yuan mark for the first time.

The 500 enterprises’ combined net profits amounted to 3.2 trillion yuan in 2017, up 13.28 percent from one year earlier. The growth reversed a downward trend since 2014 and marked the fastest pace of increase in six years.

Research and development (R&D) has been high on the enterprises’ agenda, with 426 of them reporting investment of a total of 895.09 billion yuan in R&D, an increase of 21.63 percent from the previous year.

The 2018 list revealed the country’s major companies have continued to push innovation and industrial upgrades over the past year and made progress in boosting competitiveness, improving efficiency, and expanding businesses, said Wang Zhongyu, head of the CEC.

Chang Wuqi, a professor at Peking University, warned about challenges such as emerging external uncertainties and rising labor costs but said the country’s stable economic growth and development of the Belt and Road Initiative will create opportunities for the companies.